By In a wham-bam-waitwhat turn of events, IGN have announced that they will be the exclusive hosts of a digital Alien: Isolation series. And it’s coming tomorrow!
Slow down. Huh?
Alien: Isolation is the (terrific) 2014 survival-horror video game from The Creative Assembly, telling the harrowing story of Amanda Ripley, daughter of the one-and-only Ellen “Get away from her, you bitch” Ripley. Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, the game was incredible for the way it captured the feeling of detail that makes the original film such a masterpiece, as well as creating a believable, terrifying xenomorph to stalk its filmic locale.
With a disappointing mobile game quashing hopes for a follow up, fans were left lost in space, but apparently something else is brewing for the Ripley family.
IGN’s Alien: Isolation is touted as a “first-of-its kind digital series” of seven episodes, available on the site starting tomorrow, February 28th at 9 AM PST.
The choice of “digital series” is curious, and the description might shed some light. Alien: Isolation is comprised of “cutscenes from Alien: Isolation and not so much as expands on them but creates a new animation experience to add additionally layers to the story of Ellen Ripley’s daughter.”
To quote IGN further:
“Fox worked with developers and production partners Reverse Engineering Studios and DVgroup to create this new series, which includes a combination of brand-new scenes that are rendered from scratch, cinematics that are taken directly from the game, and first-person scenes from the game that were re-shot and edited for this new telling of Amanda Ripley’s story.”
I’ve loved the Alien franchise for as long as I can remember; Alien was my first R-rated film, and look where that’s got me! The modern bloat of the franchise occasionally yields great content like the Isolation game and some of the recent comics, even if my opinion of Ridley Scott’s spin-off line of films ushered in by Prometheus isn’t always stellar. IGN’s series seems like a bit of a hodgepodge, not nearly new enough but curious in reviving a game’s story in such a way. Perhaps a means of refreshing audiences on Isolation‘s story to make way for direct sequel content? One can hope!
EXCLUSIVE ALIEN: ISOLATION TRAILER ANNOUNCES DIGITAL SERIES DEBUT ON IGN [IGN]